Music to Make Horror Movies By: My Gold Mask, “Leave Me Midnight”

Published December 31, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

When I mix Siouxsie and Robyn, all I get is a mess. But, when sexy, giallo inspired rock ‘n’ roll architects like My Gold Mask do it? They create a moody, Italian-esque masterpiece like Leave Me Midnight.

This sophisticated slab of wax has been praised by many, since its spring 2013 release, including the editors of Rue Morgue Magazine. One of the throaty, reminiscent tracks will even being featured during an emotional scene of the January 20th, 2014 episode of Being Human , as well. So, it is no surprise that every one of the ten tracks contained, here, would drape, perfectly, over the shoulders of vintage era Martino style sirens like Dagmar Lassander and Edwige Fenech.

The whole affair reaches its summery nadir with the beautifully fun Burn Like the Sun, but what is so impressive about this chilly, cobwebbed pop as a whole, is its strong emotional underpinnings. Lead singer Gretta Rochelle artfully conveys life’s scariest textures – its uncertainties and its emotional regrets – but also makes the whole mess sound so mysteriously exotic that one is compelled to join her (and cohorts Jack Armando and James Andrew) as she travels, bravely, where Night Falls, lost so passionately in her ever buzzing head.

Leave Me Midnight is truly one of this year’s best.

Purchase details and other haunting, furtive details about My Gold Mask can be obtained at http://www.mygoldmask.com.

Midwest residents can ring in the New Year with My Gold Mask, as well, when they perform with Pickwick at Schubas in Chicago on the 31st. That event is featured at https://www.facebook.com/events/558657687561965/.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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The Cabin on VHS!

Published December 28, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Some people like collecting Cinderella Barbie dolls while others like gathering exotic brands of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Cool kids, like myself, love finding rare terror flicks on VHS tape.

Giving a high salute to this tradition, writer-director Tommy Faircloth and Horsecreek Productions are releasing award winning horror short The Cabin on limited edition VHS.

Featuring shocking cool poster art, this collectors item is signed/numbered and limited to 100 copies.

You can check out the offer at: http://www.horsecreekproductions.net/cabinvhs.html

You can, also, view the trailer for this secluded scare fest at:

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Mickey Rooney’s Bloody Christmas Yo Yo!

Published December 26, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Apparently, legendary Hollywood star Mickey Rooney was very upset about the destruction of everyone’s favored bearded icon in (the now classic) 1984 Santa slasher, Silent Night, Deadly Night.

But, obviously not upset enough to turn down the role of an evil toy maker named Joe Petto in Silent Night, Deadly Night‘s final installment in 1991, subtitled The Toymaker. Here, Rooney causes some gnarly mayhem while dressed in a Santa suit much like the one that Robert Brian Wilson’s Billy donned to off errant teens in the original film.

Hmm…Hope you like some Hollywood irony with your eggnog this Christmas!

Happy Holidays and…SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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One Step Beyond with Joan Fontaine!

Published December 24, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

What I leave in my wake are cookie crumbs and a body outline composed of potato chip wrappers. They don’t call me Messy Baby for nothing!

Joan in The Women.

Fortunately for celluloid geeks, the elegant Joan Fontaine (1916-2013) left behind a legacy of classic films including such suspense masterpieces as Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941) and that forever catty call to arms The Women (1939). Genre enthusiasts can thrill to her distinguished portrayals in projects such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) and The Witches (1966), as well.

Another of her interesting fantasy style roles occurred on a 1960 episode of the para-psychological series One Step Beyond. As Ellen Grayson in “The Visitor”, Fontaine brings a weary worldliness to her portrayal of a recovering alcoholic. Recuperating at a snow capped cottage, Fontaine’s Ellen has determined she must get out of her long dead marriage. Her husband, played by Warren Beatty, 20 years younger than Fontaine at the time, is not so happy to hear this, though. Storming out into the night, he crashes his car.

It is then that the show takes its ghostly turn. Fontaine is surprised at her home by the appearance of a handsome stranger whom eventually turns out to be the younger version of her husband. (Beatty, again, but without the previous gray-face that he had been sporting.) After some heartfelt revelations, he disappears to Fontaine’s horrific shock.

Will what he revealed save their dormant relationship? Or will Fontaine/Ellen drown her surprise in several Molotov cocktails? Whatever the case, Fontaine’s dignity and beauty add much to this sentimentally supernatural enterprise. She was – and forever will be – a Cinema Queen!

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Asia Argento, “Total Entropy”

Published December 22, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Everyone looks better in pink vinyl! Euro horror legend Asia Argento proved she was no exception with the release of her musical soundscape Total Entropy earlier this year.

With every track creating a moody and dark (yet dance worthy) vibe, this seductive femme proves she knows her fan base. Even the backing to a song like CheeseAndEggs (which details the emotional routines involved with breakfast consumption) seems like it belongs behind the action of a grimy George Romero flick. Vampy concerns a girlfriend who is a “lesbo vampire” while the song with the most interesting title My Stomach is the most violent of Italy is actually one of the most musically complex, as well.

Placebo fans will rejoice at Argento’s collaboration with Brian Molko, a fun reimagining of Serge Gainsbourg’s Je t’aime moi non plus while others will definitely want to join this chameleon-like chanteuse at the Sexodrome, pronto!

Until the next time – keep your Asia love going strong by following her at
https://twitter.com/AsiaArgento — and SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: Christmas Dearest

Published December 21, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Mona, one of the kindly lesbian prostitute nuns who raised me, was ashamed of some of the stag films that she did in her dwindling years. But it did get her elected as den mother to a gang of derelict Webelos – so it wasn’t all bad.

Similarly, a bunch of us terror freaks LOVE Joan Crawford NOT for her Academy Award gyrating in Mildred Pierce (although that’s mighty fine, too) but for her controlled hysterics in such cult classics as Strait Jacket (1964), Berserk! (1967) and Trog (1970).

Nicely, Chicago’s illustrious, fun Hell in a Handbag Prductions is currently presenting Christmas Dearest, their version of A Christmas Carol as seen through the diva-like eyes of Crawford. Amazingly articulated by the incredible David Cerda, Joan is given the Scrooge treatment, here, with hilarious results.

One of the show’s true pleasures is its homage to Joan’s later career moves. With a brilliantly sodden Ed Jones, momentarily standing in as the elder Crawford, Cerda (who serves as playwright, as well) takes us to the set of an imagined Sci Fi Monster flick, a perfect stand in for all of our favorite celluloid goddess’ final screen credits. With drunken fervor, Jones’ Joan saves the day – but special notice should be given to handsome Michael John Lea who nicely captures the nuances of such (much younger), late career Crawford love interests as Lee Majors and Ty Hardin.

Featuring exemplary work from Steve Love as the younger, career hungry Joan, Cerda also offers up the final word on the Christina-Joan rivalry, here, making this the perfect holiday stage treat for film lovers of every sort.

Christmas Dearest runs in Chicago through December 28th, 2013. Further information can be gathered at http://www.handbagproductions.org.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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The Backside of Horror: Marc Blucas, “Animals”

Published December 20, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Let’s face it, half the fun of horror and exploitation is seeing some hot bodies frolicking around in the buff. And while I worship the female form, I believe exploitation definitely veers into the exploitive when only gorgeous women are on display while their male counterparts remain chastely buttoned up. Therefore, The Backside of Horror salutes the filmmakers and actors whom even up the score a bit by showing us instances of hot and juicy male flesh in their bloody celluloid fantasies.

In those dirty hours just before the Nair stops having its fully deserved effect, there is NO ONE that I want to see me in the buff.

Thankfully, former Buffy stud Marc Blucas does not have the same worries. As Jarrett, a down on his luck construction worker, Blucas shows us quite a lot in a kitchen side romp with a mysterious beauty. Soon, though, those primal tendencies take our butt baring hero down more ferocious lanes.

Based on a John Skipp and Craig Spector book, Animals got a huge push at some 2008 Fangoria conventions, but with a quiet direct-to-DVD release in 2010, this adaptation has received little to no attention.

But, a little masculine flesh on the countertop always deserves a second look, no?

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Review: growgirl

Published December 19, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Sometimes the only way to get through the daily battle between that heinous cackling wizard of fate and that vengeful witch of emotional destruction is to put your head down and just barrel through it.

Actress/author/all-around-adventuress Heather Donahue pretty much does just that as, sharply, described in her illuminating memoir growgirl. Donahue, whose terror stained credits include such fun, cheesy efforts as Manticore and The Morgue, of course, is best known for her incisive work in The Blair Witch Project. Here, though, she describes her efforts to create a life for herself after her career in Hollywood stops holding any fruitful fascination for her.

Gamely facing the terrors of the Manticore!

The answer to her quest is probably a bit less typical than you might imagine. Retiring to a small West Coast community, Donahue begins a career farming medical marijuana. With self deprecation and tart humor, she describes her year-long adventure in a seemingly harmonious community that, ultimately, has as many double standards as any societal unit.

Winningly, Donahue is as tough on herself as any of the people she encounters on her journey. From physical comedy to self aware acknowledgements of her propensity to bang when knocking softly would suffice, she writes with humbling candor. Her on-the-target observations about the community’s inability to escape from basic patriarchal grandstanding are leavened with detailed descriptions of those masculine elders’ honest heartaches and profound commitments, as well.

Best of all, for those who aware of their own uncertain stumbling through life, Donahue’s narration provides plenty of relatability. But, we can only hope that our experiences contain half of the honest, poetic beauty that Donahue describes so potently in growgirl.

PS: For dog lovers, Donahue’s loving descriptions of her bounding pup, Vito, make him one of the most fascinating literary characters in recent years.

You can purchase growgirl at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/k434ttr and you can keep up-to-date with Donahue at http://www.heatherdonahue.com, as well.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Hey!! Follow me at http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan, too.

Review: Red Caps

Published December 18, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

It’s amazing to consider that, one day, gay high school prom kings and queens may be the norm. Standing at the mid-point of history, when our queer baby brothers and sisters are still being bullied yet becoming a more recognized scholastic force, Steve Berman’s collection of new young adult fairy tales, Red Caps, hits at exactly the right moment. His stories contain proud, out college bound sophisticates whom still are fighting off the rigid strains of homophobia and the prescribed doctrines of public acceptance – all with a fantastical twist, of course.

With a release date of February 14th, 2014, many of Berman’s sweetly magical tales concern love. Love thwarted, love longed for and love, in its delicate first moments of adventure. You get the still relevant tales of youths fighting to free their significant others from the dangers of the closet (Only Lost Boys Are Found) and those fighting for breath within the sticky strings of monogamy (Bittersweet). Berman, also, perfectly nails the tentative nature of all emotional entanglements. No one ever quite escapes the nervous energy associated with a new crush or an unrequited obsession, making stories such as Most Likely and The Harvestbuck relatable to all.

Berman mixes all these common day realities with a sense of the punk (Red Caps is an indie band mentioned in several of the stories) fantastic, though. All Smiles power-blends the conventions of sexy hitchhiking bad-asses, back breaking reform school programs and mysterious clans of demon hunters into a bloody, hypnotic literature smoothie. Three on a Match suggests that tragedies like teen suicide and the strains of life-at-large can find a bit of relief in the imaginary and supposed magic.

Berman excels in smaller moments, as well. He writes of familial relations, particularly the interactions between siblings, with tart truth. Indeed, a late-point revelation about the lead character’s sister in Only Lost Boys Are Found is one of the most simple, yet poignant moments in the collection as a whole.

Funny, honest and mystically misty, Berman proves here, without a doubt, that the mysterious and the wonderful do exist in our everyday lives, making Red Caps an appropriate gift for funky kids of every age.

Further information on Berman and Red Caps can be gathered at http://www.lethepressbooks.com and http://www.steveberman.com.

Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Follow me at http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan, as well.

Music to Make Horror Movies By: Jessica Walter, “Why Can’t You Behave?”

Published December 15, 2013 by biggayhorrorfan

Oh, the double standards! Its okay for the 95 year old with the elk tattoo on her stomach to parade around the lobby of our building in a Dracula string bikini- but not me!!! What??!!??

Walter, going crazy, in Misty!

Similarly, it seems its perfectly acceptable for the divine Jessica Walter, perhaps best known to some as Arrested Development ‘s caustic Lucille Bluth, to cause massive amounts of mayhem in genre projects like Play Misty for Me (1971), TV Christmas slasher Home for the Holidays (1972), Doctor Strange (1978) and Ghost in the Machine (1993) – but introduce her to one wayward gentleman and she wonders why he can’t behave!

Yes, in the “She Can Do It All” sweepstakes, the eclectic Walter sang the role of Bianca/Lois Lane in a 1968 television production of Cole Porter’s classic Kiss Me Kate, which was also released as a limited edition LP. This proves, at long last, that Belinda Carlisle’s theory is true. Heaven is a place on earth!!! (Bloody Jessica Walter walking earth!!!)

Delicious Walter as the delicious Morgan LeFay! Doctor Strange

So, worship that red dress and — Until the next time – SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

Be sure to follow me at http://www.facebook.com/biggayhorrorfan, as well!